This map of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay shows the location of the auto-detection buoys deployed to alert ocean-going vessels to the presence of right whales. (Map by Christopher Tremblay, Cornell University)

Working in the Coastal Research Laboratory at WHOI, engineering assistant Paul Fraser puts finishing touches on a surface buoy for the right whale autodetection system. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

John Kemp is a senior engineering assistant in the WHOI Mooring Operations, Engineering, and Field Support Group. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

This engineering drawing shows the components of the right whale autodetection buoy. The key development is the black "gumby" hose. (Illustration by Betsey Doherty and John Kemp, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

New Whale Detection Buoys Will Help Ships Take the Right Way through Marine Habitat

Collaboration between researchers, regulators, and industry will aid in the protection of an endangered species

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
and the Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
have teamed up with an international energy company and federal regulators to
listen for and help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales in New England waters.

Building on advances in ocean mooring design, underwater
acoustic systems, and telecommunications, the team built and installed ten
“auto-detection buoys” to listen for the calls of right whales along the main
shipping lanes into Massachusetts Bay and Boston Harbor.

The array of instruments—conceived by biologist and engineer Christopher W.
Clark of the Cornell Lab and engineer John Kemp of WHOI—was largely funded by
Excelerate Energy, L.L.C., as part of its environmental compliance associated
with its Northeast Gateway deepwater port for liquefied natural gas (LNG). The import
facility is set to begin operations in spring 2008.

The new listening system allows researchers to detect the
location of whales in real time and alert ship operators and coastal resource
managers to their presence. With advance warning, ships can be slowed or
re-routed to prevent collisions, which is the most common cause of death for
the iconic New England whale.

Marine
biologists estimate that only 350 to 400 right whales remain in the North Atlantic.

"North Atlantic right
whales migrate through a highly industrialized part of the coastline, and we
need creative solutions to help them survive,” said Kemp, an engineer in WHOI’s
Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering. “The challenge was to
develop a mooring that could stand up to the stresses of harsh New England waters while keeping an acoustically quiet
environment for the hydrophones."

Mandated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the whale-detection system was installed along a 55
nautical mile segment of the Boston Traffic Separation Scheme (primary shipping
lanes) leading to Boston Harbor.

The Northeast Gateway is located approximately
13 nautical miles south southeast of Gloucester,
Mass., and 1.8 nautical miles
from the western border of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (which
is managed by NOAA).

Since the route to the LNG terminal
takes vessels through prime whale habitat, researchers and regulators from the
sanctuary and NOAA Fisheries worked with the Port’s licensing agencies (the US
Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration) and Excelerate Energy to develop a
plan to keep whales and LNG ships out of each other’s way in Massachusetts
Bay.

Excelerate Energy then entered into a
partnership with the Cornell Lab and WHOI to develop the remote auto-detection
system. To further reduce the operational risk of ship strikes, Excelerate
Energy has trained its crew members to watch for marine mammals and sea turtles
as their vessels travel to and from the port.

Each auto-detection buoy is instrumented with an underwater
microphone—or hydrophone—to carry underwater sounds to the surface via
specially designed cable that WHOI technicians playfully call it the “Gumby
hose.” The stretchy, hose-like cable has data-conducting wires woven into its
walls.

More importantly, the Gumby hose can stretch to at least
twice its normal length, a special mooring design created at WHOI to overcome
harsh sea states and keep the buoy above water. In typical winter storm
conditions in the North Atlantic, wave heights
in coastal waters can swell to 10 meters (33 feet), putting dangerous strain on
traditional mooring lines and creating excessive noise that would make whale
detection nearly impossible.

Data from the hydrophones are relayed through the Gumby hose
to customized computers on the surface buoy, which continuously analyze
underwater sounds to detect possible right whale calls. Every 20 minutes, these
acoustic detections are sent by cellular or satellite phone to a server at Clark’s lab, where they are validated by whale call
experts.

In the process, researchers can determine whether right whales have
been detected within range of each buoy and then alert Excelerate Energy and,
perhaps eventually, other ships using maritime telecommunications networks.

“Thanks to these efforts, for the first time, ship
captains can receive continuous information on where the whales are so they can
slow down and avoid tragic collisions,” said Clark, lead scientist on the
project. “Scientific studies indicate that the death of just one or two
breeding females a year will lead to the population’s extinction. Slowing down
for whales will make a big difference.”

The WHOI Mooring Operations, Engineering, and Field Support
Group has been designing, building, and deploying scientific instruments in the
sea for decades, making dozens of installations around the world each year for
researchers from WHOI and many other institutions and companies.

Kemp and Clark have been working together on the
whale-detection system since 2003, testing several different hydrophones and
mooring designs. The team recently deployed three whale detection buoys in Cape Cod Bay
for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and two off the coasts of Georgia and Florida.

The effort to detect and protect whales in Massachusetts Bay
is part of a larger effort by scientists and personnel from the New England
Aquarium, Provincetown
Center for Coastal
Studies, NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Stellwagen Bank National
Marine Sanctuary, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology, WHOI, and other members of the Right Whale Consortium.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private,
independent organization in Falmouth,
Mass., dedicated to marine
research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a
recommendation from the National
Academy of Sciences, its
primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth
as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the
changing global environment.

Originally published: April 29, 2008

WHOI is the world's leading non-profit oceanographic research organization. Our mission is to explore and understand the ocean and to educate scientists, students, decision-makers, and the public.